From Betts to Forsberg?

I suppose it would be an upgrade, although chances are the 33-year-old Swede would spend most of his time in some sort of soft cast, watching from the press box. But according to John Dellapina at the News, the Rangers are one of a dozen teams looking into a deal for the injury-plagued but otherworldly talent, who if healthy, surely could deliver Brendan Shanahan the puck in the slot.

Forsberg’s contract with the Flyers (worth $5.75 million this season) expires this spring, but with nearly two-thirds of the season gone, the Rangers could still likely make room for him under the cap for the stretch drive. At what cost remains the question, especially given the assortment of injuries that have limited him to just 29 games this season.

22 Comments

Unless it’s Krog (or Betts or Cullen or any of the other third/forth line centers)for Forsburg, I hope Peter the Lame keeps his schtick in Philly. The last thing the Ranger lockeroom needs is a mercenary everyone on the team knows from the getgo will be back with the Flyers next season… If anyone’s comming from philthy, I say grab Yorkie off the waiver-wire once he gets dumped(hell, trade a draft pick for him), then use him as a second line center. From the way it sounded during the Isles game a few nights ago, Stevens has all but given up on him. ..Shanahan-York-Prucha sure sounds better than Shanny-Krog-Cullen…

I’m all for it! He’s one of the greatest players in the NHL history and he’s still great, talented player. If he’s healthy I’d not even spend one minute to think about getting him. Look at Flyers when he’s playing – totally different team. He’s a great addition to every team.

JUST SAY NO! He will cost us young talent and he will just re-sign with Philly in the offseason. He is always hurt and will just be reverting to the Rangers of the late 90’s/early 00’s. Don’t bother with this, it won’t help win a cup.

in his prime Forsberg was a great player. Injuries have done away with his prime so they absolutely should not trade for him (I think he’ll either go back to Sweden or Colorado for next yr). No good draft picks for York either (certainly not top 2 or 3 rounds)

stf:problem is that Prucha would likely need to go in that deal. Holmgren is rumored to want young players and picks, in otherwords, do you think this team minus Prucha and plus Forsburg is ready to go to the cup finals? I’d answer no to that. Maybe Forsburg and Pitkanen would put them in contention, but that’s about as likely to happen as Crosby getting picked up off the waiver wire…And after watching Forsburg against the Isles, he really didn’t do anything that special to elevate his team. He’d be a good add were it for say a mid-round pick, Jason Ward and one of the surplus defenders. But for Prucha in black and orange(along with the likes of Immonen and Dawes or a similar value package)? Hell no. And it’s been intimated that he’s just a mercenary only interested in joining Philly again, which can be divisive in a locker room,IMHO.

Prucha is not going to make much of a difference for this team as far as getting into the play-offs and beyond IMHO. As much as I would hate this deal, if it came down to a choice between Prucha and Forsberg, give me Forsberg over the flea any day of the week.

TERRIBLE for the Rangers on a competitive level… GREAT for packing seats though. As usual. It’s what the Rangers do best, past-their-prime marquee talent.
If we get Forsberg, expect to end up where Philly is now in the standings. But at least he’ll sell merchandise, like $300 Rangers jerseys, branded wheelchairs, and crutches.

horible Idea, Yes we do need a second line play making center but we also need some solid defesemen, speed and team toughness. They can’t protect or stick up for Jagr how will Fosberg help. Fosberg he is oftn-injured, slow and one of the dirtiest players in the league (spoken about by three seprate players in the book “The Code”- Great read by the way).
The rangers seem to have no team chemistry. he would not help that. Fosberg would just added to the miseries of this team while subtracting from its future.

I ‘t think it would an ill-advised move to provide the Flyers with talent for someone they’ll be losing next year. However, if we can keep him from going to our other Rivals then that may have some value to it as well. In regards to having Forsberg on our team, I think it would be a great improvement, but as you mentioned… to what cost.

Forsberg’s completely broken, for pete’s sake. How could we possibly consider giving up anything for him? Why trade or sign a player who can’t lace up their skates? Why don’t we just sign Muhammad Ali as an enforcer?

Another vet with no shame squeezing dollars out of the Rangers when they should have retired.

Re: Forsberg or any other big namer who will cost us our youts…Dolan, Sather, et al = hockey attitude equivalant of greedy oil companies, manufacturing corporations and government in general: eff the future of our children, we’ll just keep polluting the environment so that we can continue to live large.

How much could they possibly ask for him? He makes a good amount of money and Philly is looking to dump salary. But the thing is this move will not likely happen as Philly doesnt want to see Forsberg destroy them, Plus do we really want to trade them good young players for an extremely injury prone player who wont play half the time and have our kids who “Havent Fully Developed” absolutely crush us. The Rangers should adress their biggest problems which is Defense

NO NO NO NOOOOO, I really do not like the idea of Forsberg. I would prefer someone younger that we can build on. Someone that we can think about keeping for next year and get him to click with Shanny and a second line, not only this year but next year as well. WE CAN NOT COUNT ON FORSBERG BEING HEALTHY AT ALL, THIS YEAR OR NEXT. NO NO NO NOOOOOO

They won’t trade any of our youngsters to Philly. I don’t believe it’s going to happen. They’ve expressed it many times. Maybe they’re willing to send Prucha in exchange but none of Hartford boys. I hope Sather can push one of our useless vets (Hall, J.Ward, Malik, Kaspar) for Forsberg. That would be good deal.

Has it been that long, has everyone forgotten that Philly dumped that concussion-prone, crap attitude “Lindros The Whiner” on us for futures and some current decent players? Why do the Rangers have to be pushovers for other organization fire sales? SATHER, that’s why. I bet this “deal” gets done, because Sather knows he could be out of a job if the Rangers miss the round of 16. I despise Sather’s short-term, self-serving, mortgaging of the Rangers future, year after year. Dolan canned Larry Brown on the Knicks side of the Garden, maybe, just maybe he is focused on replacing the second-worst (where have you gone, John Ferguson?) GM in Rangers history. Damn, I sure hope so. One more talented younger player shipped out for old junk and I will go bananas.